Formerly a non self-described "expat" in Nigeria now living in Brooklyn and surrounded by Nigerians. I'm a writer, cook, photographer, manager of artist Laolu Senbanjo, manager of the band the Afromysterics, and Mother of Naniya.
This is my Nigerian Life--the Brooklyn edition.

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I am sick and tired of this place. It could be because I am sick. It could be because I need a job and there's so much wahalla going on right now that I can't get one. I just want to be away from here. But then I still worry. I worry about the money I am not earning. I hate it, I hate it, I hate. I'm so unhappy right now. One little thing could make it all go away. But I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. Plus, I hate Oliver. I want him to go away too...

Thursday, June 11, 2009

I have almost finished a new great read I picked up at Salamander Cafe in Abuja. 'Black Gold of the Sun' by Ekow Eshun. I highly recommend it. Ekow is a Ghanaian Brit, or maybe he doesn't think so. Anyway, I recommend the book. Not feeling the greatest these days. Either a storm is brewing inside of me or all the stress in my mind has gotten me into something.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Last weekend Banji and I went to Abuja for the weekend to celebrate his belated bday. Banji freaked out about the costs of everything as he usual does, even though back in the states he'd drop $200 a day on biking gear with no thought. Just swipe the card, hop back on his bike and off he went. Regardless of the dollars/naira we dropped, we ate, we slept, and most importantly we enjoyed. We stayed at the Sheraton, at immense amounts of those large prawns I've only seen in Nigeria, although, sidestriped shrimp from Alaska are still my faves, we ate steaks from South Africa, we drank chapmans by the pool while I complained about the Germans and their speedos and prostitutes, we shopped, and I ate hazelnut gelato. Yep, hazelnut gelato.

Some of my favorite parts about our trip to Abuja was the Salamander Cafe in Wuse II. This place was recommended by our friend Ramesh who no longer works at AUN. This place is colorful, has couches, great decor, great coffee and food. It's like a real coffee house. I love it. The best part is the bookshop and cd store inside. I was truly hoping to find DVDs there, but no such luck, but I did get lots of new cds. But no Nneka, which I was extremely disappointed about. But someday, I'll get it. Of course, the Obudu is the other favorite place in Abuja. However, we did luck out and were at the Sheraton during their Sunday Barbeque. Which was amazing, I even had grilled red snapper.

Anyway, back in Yola. I'll be without a computer as of tomorrow. Which totally sucks. I'm going to start writing daily in my notebooks that I have. So I'm going to try something new with that later. Anyway, still no job. Oh well. Busy planning our Europe trip and looking into our winter trip to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Woowee! brb. bathroom break. Went swimming today. Going to work harder at getting in some exercise and getting Beowulf to the pond to swim too.

Still no rainy season. Random rain, yes it's hard and intense storms, but just not the real deal yet.